System, method and device for language education through a voice portal

ABSTRACT

A method of teaching pronunciation is provided which includes communicating by a voice portal server to a user a model word and detecting a response by the user to the voice portal server. The method also includes comparing the response word to the model word and determining a confidence level based on the comparison of the response word to the model word. The method further includes comparing an acceptance limit to the confidence level and confirming a correct pronunciation of the model word if the confidence level one of equals and exceeds the acceptance limit.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a method of languageinstruction, and a system and device for implementing the method. Inparticular, the present invention relates to a method for learning alanguage using a voice portal.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

[0002] Learning a new language may be a difficult task. With increasingglobalization, being able to communicate in multiple languages has alsobecome a skill that may provide an edge, including, for example, incareer advancement. The quality of the experience of visiting a country,whether for pleasure or business, may be enhanced by even a rudimentaryknowledge of the local language. There are various ways to learn alanguage, including by reading books, taking classes, viewing internetsites, and listening to books-on-tape.

[0003] It is believed that an important aspect of learning a language islearning correct pronunciation and language usage. Practicingpronunciation and usage may be a critical aspect of properly learning alanguage.

[0004] It is believed that available language learning tools may havevarious disadvantages. For example, learning from a book orbooks-on-tape is not an interactive process, and therefore the studentmay fall into the habit of incorrect usage. Attending a class may behelpful, but it may also be inconvenient because of a busy schedule,especially for professionals. Also, students may lose interest inlearning if they feel that they are not able to cope with the pace ofthe class.

[0005] A tool that teaches pronunciation and usage, and which can beused at the student's own leisure, would be very convenient and useful.It is therefore believed that there is a need for providing a method andsystem of providing convenient, effective and/or inexpensive languageinstruction.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0006] An exemplary method of the present invention is directed toproviding teaching pronunciation which includes communicating by a voiceportal server to a user a model word and detecting a response by theuser to the voice portal server. The exemplary method also includescomparing the response word to the model word and determining aconfidence level based on the comparison of the response word to themodel word, and comparing an acceptance limit to the confidence leveland confirming a correct pronunciation of the model word if theconfidence level one of equals and exceeds the acceptance limit.

[0007] An exemplary system of the present invention is directed toproviding a system which includes a voice portal, a communication deviceadapted to be coupled with the voice portal server, and an applicationserver adapted to be electrically coupled with the voice portal. In theexemplary system, the voice portal compares at least one word spoken bya user into the communication device with a phrase provided by theapplication server to determine a confidence level.

[0008] An exemplary method of the present invention is directed toproviding for a language teaching method which includes communicating aprompt to a user by a voice portal, detecting a response by the user tothe voice portal, parsing the response into at least one uttered phrase,each of the at least one uttered phrase associated with a correspondingat least one slot. The exemplary method further includes comparing eachof the at least one uttered phrase associated with the corresponding atleast one slot with at least one stored phrase, the at least one storedphrase associated with the corresponding at least one slot, anddetermining a confidence level based on the comparison of each utteredphrase with each stored phrase corresponding to the at least one slot.The exemplary method further includes comparing an acceptance limit toeach confidence level, the acceptance limit associated with each storedphrase, and confirming that at least one uttered phrase corresponds toeach stored phrase if the confidence level of one equals or exceeds theassociated acceptance limit.

[0009] The exemplary method and/or system of the present invention mayprovide a user accessible service which may be used at the user'sconvenience, at any time. The exemplary system may track a user'sknowledge, experience, and progress. The exemplary system may check onthe pronunciation of words/phrases/sentences, as well as identify thecorrect word usage with an incorrect pronunciation. The exemplary systemmay also assess a user's performance (such information may be used todecide to go to the next level), and may make scheduled calls to improvea user's interaction skills and readiness in the foreign language. Theuser may be able to decide to be trained on specific topics or grammars(such as, for exemple, financial or technical).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010]FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of a system of the presentinvention showing a user, a voice portal and a database.

[0011]FIG. 2 shows an exemplary method according to the presentinvention, in the form of a flow chart demonstrating a dialoguestructure for a user calling the service.

[0012]FIG. 3 shows an exemplary method according to the presentinvention, in the form of a flow chart demonstrating a test environmentthat provides an interactive learning tool for the users to help improvetheir language skills in the specified language.

[0013]FIG. 4 shows schematically a virtual classroom includingcomponents of the voice portal server, interactive units and the user.

[0014]FIG. 5 shows an exemplary response parsed into slots and showingvarious possible uttered phrases.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] The voice portal may be used as an interactive tool to learn anew language. Speech recognition and playback features may enable thesystem to provide a simulated, classroom-like environment to the user.According to an exemplary method of the present invention, the methodprovides an interactive tool that can correct pronunciation and grammarand that can be accessed at any time.

[0016]FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the system. A voice portal 12may be used to recognize proper pronunciation and may be used as aninteractive language instruction tool. FIG. 1 shows the voice portal 12which operates as an interactive tool for learning a language. A user 10may call the voice portal 12. The voice portal 12 may then pull up theprofile of the user 10 and begin providing the user 10 with acorresponding tutorial.

[0017] The user 10 may use a telephone 11 to access the voice portal 12by calling a telephone number. Alternative methods for the user 10 toaccess the voice portal 12 may include the use of a personal computer.The voice portal 12 may access a database 13, which may include a poolof valid, stored phrases (alternatively referred to as grammar files)for various languages, including different dialects within eachlanguage. The database 13 may also include different lesson plansdepending on the student goals (for example, traveling, conversation,business, academic, etc.). The database 13 may also include a record ofthe previous lessons presented to user 10, as well as a progress reportwhich may include areas of strengths and weaknesses.

[0018] An exemplary system of the present invention may introduce theuse of the voice portal 12 as a tool for learning specific languages.The system may provide a structured learning process to the user 10through a simple call to the voice portal 12. This instruction mayinclude tutorials and tests to provide the user 10 with a class-likeenvironment, and may provide the user 10 with the flexibility to takelessons and practice by calling the voice portal 12 at any time.

[0019] The voice portal 12 may include a server connected to thetelephone system or another communication network to provide speechrecognition and text-to-speech capabilities over the telephone 11 oranother communication device. The voice portal 12 may be used to providedifferent types of information, including, for example, news, weatherreports, stock quotes, etc. The voice portal 12 may also maintainprofiles of the user 10, so that the user 10 can access E-mail, acalendar, or address entries.

[0020] An exemplary system of the present invention uses the voiceportal 12 to replicate a language class with pseudo student-teacherinteraction. The voice portal 12 operates as a “teacher” to correct thestudent (the user 10), by providing the user 10 with a method ofimmediate feedback on correctly pronouncing words and correctly usinggrammar. The voice portal 12 can also store a profile of the user 10. Bykeeping track of the sessions of the user 10, the voice portal 12 mayevaluate performance and increase the complexity of the lessonsdepending on the performance of the user 10. An exemplary system of thepresent invention may also recap or summarize the previous sessions ifthe user 10 is accessing the voice portal 12 after some time interval orif the user 10 requests a review.

[0021]FIG. 2 shows a dialogue structure that a user may experience whencalling the service and initiating an instructional session. FIG. 2shows an arrangement or configuration in which the user calls the voiceportal 12 and selects, within a dialog setting, the language (forexample, “French,” “Spanish” or “German”) and the level (for example,“basic”, “intermediate” or “advanced”). The voice portal 12 recognizesthese commands and provides the user 10 with a relevant lesson in theselected language.

[0022] The flow of FIG. 2 begins at start 21 and proceeds to action 22,in which the system initiates the session. The action 22 may includeanswering a telephone call to the system, and may therefore representthe initiation of contact with the system. The voice portal 12 mayanswer the phone call or other contact with a greeting of, for example,“Welcome to the Language Learning Center. From your profile I see thatyou are currently on French level intermediate. Do you want to continuelearning French?” Next, in response 23, the user responds to theinterrogatory of the system. If the user responds “yes,” then in action24, the system may offer to review the student's progress by, forexample, asking “Do you want to recap your previous session?” Afteraction 24, in response 25, the user responds to the interrogatory of thesystem, and if the user responds “yes,” then in action 26, the systembegins to review the lesson by, for example, “Recapping our previoussessions . . . ” After action 26, circle 27 may represent the beginningof a review session. If the user responds with a “no” in response 25,then in action 28 the system begins instruction by, for example,providing the message “Continuing intermediate level French class . . .” From action 28, circle 30 may represent the beginning of aninstruction session. An example of this instruction session is shown ingreater detail in FIG. 3. If the user 10 responds with a “no” inresponse 23, then in action 29, the system may interrogate the user 10by providing the message, for example, “Please select a language, forexample, German or Spanish.” After action 29, in response 31, the user10 responds to the interrogatory. If the user 10 responds “German”, thenin action 32, the system interrogates the user 10 by, for example,providing the instructional message “Please select the level ofinstruction, for example, beginner, intermediate, or advanced.” Fromaction 32, in response 33, the user 10 responds to the interrogatory. Ifthe user responds “advanced”, then in action 34, the system may begininstruction by providing, for example, the message: “Starting advancedlevel German class.” From action 34, circle 35 may represent thebeginning of an instruction session. Alternatively, in response 31, theuser may respond “Spanish”, which leads to circle 36, which mayrepresent the beginning of another instructional session. Additionally,in response 33, the user may respond “beginner”, which leads to circle38, or “intermediate”, which leads to circle 39. Each of circle 38 andcircle 39 may represent the beginning of a different instructionalsession.

[0023]FIG. 3 shows an exemplary test environment to provide aninteractive learning tool for users to aid in improving their languageskills in the specified language. Specifically, FIG. 3 starts withcircle 37, which may represent the same circle 30 from FIG. 2, or mayrepresent another starting point. Proceeding from circle 37 to action40, the system begins instruction by providing, for example, themessage: “Scenario: you meet someone for the first time in a party, howwould you greet them, in French.” After action 40, in response 41, theuser 10 responds. After response 41, in action 42, the user response ischecked against possible answers. In action 42, the system may accessthe database 13. After action 42, in action 44, the system determines aconfidence level based on the comparison. Next, at decision-point 45,the system determines whether the confidence level is equal to orgreater than an acceptance limit associated with each possible answer.If the confidence level is greater than or equal to the acceptancelimit, then action 46 is performed, which indicates to the system tocontinue with the next question. After action 46, circle 47, mayindicate a continuation of the instruction session, including additionalscenarios, vocabulary and pronunciation testing, or comprehensionskills.

[0024] If the response at decision-point 45 is negative, which indicatesthat the confidence level is less than the acceptance limit, then inaction 48, the system informs the user 10 that the response wasunsatisfactory. Following action 48, in question 49, the system querieswhether the user 10 wants to hear a sample correct response. If the userresponds affirmatively, then in action 50, the system provides a samplecorrect response. Following action 50, in question 51, the systemqueries the user 10 if the question is to be repeated. If the userresponds in the negative, then in action 52, the system prompts the user10 by providing, for example, the message “Then try again”, and returnsto action 41.

[0025] If the response to question 49 is negative, then the flow mayproceed to question 51, and if the response to question 51 isaffirmative, then action 40 is performed.

[0026] When the user 10 reaches a certain point in the language course,the system may conduct a test to assess the user's progress. Dependingon the results of the assessment test, the system may recommend whetherthe user 10 should repeat the lesson or proceed to the next level.

[0027] Another scenario is that the user 10 may practice by repeatingthe word until the system recognizes the word, or the system may repeatthe word after each attempt by the user 10 to pronounce correctly theword until the user correctly pronounces the word. In thepseudo-classroom, the correction of pronunciation and language nuancesmay be made immediately by the voice portal. For example, the followingdialogue may be part of the language instruction:

[0028] System: Please say “Telegraphie”<tele'gra:fi>

[0029] User: <tele'gra: phe>

[0030] System: That is an incorrect pronunciation, please say it again.<tele'gra:fi>.

[0031] User: <tele'gra:fi>

[0032] System: That's right! Let's go to the next word.

[0033] Additionally, the system may test the user 10 in pronouncinggroups of words. Term shall mean in the context of this application bothsingle words and groups of words.

[0034]FIG. 4 shows an exemplary architecture of a combined voice portal12 and web portal 54. The user 10 may set a personal profile via a webportal 54. A geo (geography) server 56 may contain country specific orlocation specific information, E-mail server 55 may send and receiveE-mails in the language being learned, the database 13 may include theuser profile, language information and correct and incorrectpronunciations. The voice portal 12 may be the main user interface tolearn and practice the language skills. An application server 57 maycontrol access to the geo-server 56, E-mail server 55 and the database13 from the voice portal 12 and the web portal 54. The web portal 54 maybe connected to a personal computer 59 via the Internet 60, or anothercommunication network. The web portal 54 may be coupled or connected tothe personal computer 59 via the Internet 60, or other communicationnetwork. The voice portal 12 may be connected or coupled to thetelephone 11 (or other communication device) via a telephone system 61,or other communication network. The geo-server 56, the E-mail server 55,the database 13, the voice portal 12, the application server 57, and theweb portal 54 may be collectively referred to as a language learningcenter 58. Alternatively, the user 10 may access the language learningcenter 58 without the telephone 11 by using a personal computer 59having an audio system (microphone and speakers). The user 10 may alsoaccess the language learning center 58 without a personal computer 59 byusing only the telephone 11, or some other suitably appropriatecommunication device.

[0035] The geo-server 56 may provide location specific information tothe user 10 by identifying the location of the user 10 through a GPSsystem, a mobile phone location system, a user input, or by any othersuitably appropriate method or device. The location specific informationprovided by the geo-server 56 may include the local language, dialectand/or regional accent. For example, the user 10 may call voice portal12, and ask the question: “How do I say ‘where can I get a cup of coffeehere?” The geo server 56 may locate the user 10 by a mobile phonelocation system or a GPS system integrated in the telephone 11. Thegeo-server 56 may identify the dominant language and any regionaldialect for the location of the user 10. This information may beprovided to the application server 57 to assist in accessing thedatabase 13. Thus, the voice portal 12 may provide the user 10 viatelephone 11 with the foreign language translation of the phrase “Wherecan I get a cup of coffee?” This information may be provided in thelocal dialect and accent, if any, and the user 10 may then be promptedto repeat the phrase to test the user's pronunciation skills.

[0036] E-mail server 55 may be used to send E-mails to the user 10 foradministrative purposes (such as, for example, to prompt the user 11 tocall the voice portal 12 for a new lesson), or to teach and/or practicereading and/or writing in a foreign language.

[0037] Voice recognition can be divided into two categories: dictationand dialogue-based. Dictation allows the user to speak freely withoutlimitation. As a consequence, however, voice recognition of dictationmay require a large amount of processing power and/or a large set ofsound-files/grammar-files, possibly pronounced by the user, toeffectively identify the spoken word. There may be few algorithmiclimitations on normal speech to aid in the identification of the spokenword, and these limitations may be limited to a few grammar rules. Onthe other hand, a dialogue-based system may be implemented with lessprocessing power and/or fewer or no sound samples from the user. Adialogue-based system may parse a response into grammatical componentssuch as subject, verb and object.

[0038] Within each of the parsed components, a dialogue-based system mayhave a limited number (such as, for example, 15) stored sound files,with each stored sound file associated with a different word. Thus, adialogue-based system may reduce the level of complexity associated withvoice recognition considerably. Additionally, each stored sound file,each parsed grammatical component, or each user response may have anassociated acceptance limit, which may be compared to a confidence leveldetermined by the dialogue-based system when associating a particularsound with a particular stored sound file. A high acceptance limit mayrequire a higher confidence level to confirm that the word associatedwith that stored sound file was the word spoken by the user. Thisconcept may be expanded by using incorrect pronunciation stored soundfiles. Incorrect pronunciation stored sound files may include theincorrect pronunciation of the word.

[0039] The system may be designed so that a particular uttered sounddoes not lead to confidence levels for two different sounds that mayexceed the respective acceptance limits for the different stored sounds.In other words, the prompts from the system to the user 10 may bedesigned so that acceptable alternative responses would have a lowpossibility of confusion.

[0040] Limits may be provided by using slots, which may be delimitedusing recognized silences. For example:

[0041] “The grass | is | green.”

[0042] slot1 | slot2 | slot3

[0043] The system may be able to correct the user 10, if the user 10uses a wrong word in slot 2, such as, for example, “are” instead of“is”. There may be other solutions to correct grammatical “ordering”mistakes (such as, for example, “The grass green is.”). The utteredphrase may be compared for one slot with stored phrases associated withother slots for confidence levels that exceed acceptance limits. If anyconfidence level exceeds an acceptance limit for an uttered phrasecompared with a stored phrase for another slot, then an ordering mistakemay be identified. The system may then inform the user 10 of theordering mistake, the correct order and/or the grammatical ruledetermining the word order.

[0044] For example, if an answer is expected in the form “You | are |suspicious!” (in which a “|” represents a slot delimiter) and the answeris “Suspicious you are”, then the slots have to have at least thefollowing entries >slot 1: “you, suspicious”, slot 2: “are, you”, slot3: “suspicious, are” <for the two instances to be recognized. While thecombination 111 would be the right one, the system would tell the user10, if it recognizes 222, that the user 10 has made an ordering error.The system may also recognize other combinations as well, such as, forexample, 122 if the user stutters, 211, and other mistakes, and couldinform the user 10 as necessary.

[0045] The application server 57 may manage the call, applicationhandling, and/or handle database access for user profiles, etc.

[0046] A pool of stored phrases is defined herein as an edition of wordsrecognizable by the system at a given instance, for example “grass,tree, sky, horse, . . . ” For each slot, there can be a different poolof stored phrases. There is an expected diversification of words in eachslot, for example:

[0047] slot 1 | slot 2 | slot 3

[0048] The grass is green.

[0049] Is the grass green?

[0050] A more subject-oriented example may be types of greetings, forexample:

[0051] How are you?

[0052] Nice to meet you!

[0053] I have heard so much about you!

[0054] Aren't you with Bosch?

[0055] The speech recognition algorithm may recognize silences or breaksand try to match the “filling” (that is, the uttered phrases) betweensuch breaks to what it finds in its pool of stored phrases. The systemmay start with recognizing “The”, but since this is not in slot 1, thesystem may add the next uttered phrase (“grass”) and try again to find amatch, and so on. The developer may need to foresee all possiblecombinations of answers and feed them into the grammar. Even a wholesentence may be in one slot (such as, for example, a slot representing“yes,” “That is correct!”, “That's right!”, “Yepp”, etc.)

[0056] With respect to mispronounced entries, a recognition engine maybe capable of handling user-defined stored sounds. In those storedsounds, the mispronounciation must be “defined”, that is, a machinereadable wrongly pronounced word must be added (such as, for example, if“car” is the expected word, the pronounciation of “care” or “core” maybe used, possibly along with other conceivable mispronunciations). Forthe system to be able to recognize wrongly pronounced words, thosemispronounciations must be known to the system. Otherwise the system mayreject them as “garbage” in the best case or interpret them as somethingelse and possibly deliver the wrong error message.

[0057] Therefore, in operation, the system may provide a scenario toonly allow for a few possible subjects, restricted to what is predefinedin the pool of stored sounds.

[0058] If a word is grammatically required, it can be made mandatory,that is, there would be a slot for it (such as, for example, todifferentiate between wrong pronounciations or even wrong words).Alternatively, the word can be optional (such as, for example, “Grass isgreen” or “The grass is green”). If the word is optional, there would beno need to reserve a slot. The word may be marked as optional in the“grass” slot. One way to mark a word as optional would be to use anentry like “?the grass”. The question mark in front of “the” makes itoptional for the recognition engine. Different markings for optionalwords are also possible.

[0059] An exemplary parsed response is shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. 5, a “?”in front of words indicates they are optional (other recognition enginesaccept [ ] or other ways to mark optional words). The system query mightbe: “Please identify the objects around you with their color!”

[0060] Valid responses may include:

[0061] The grass is yellow.

[0062] The grass is green.

[0063] That big tree is brown.

[0064] This small cat is yellow.

[0065] Invalid user responses may include:

[0066] That tree is brown.

[0067] That small dog is yellow.

[0068] The system may reject some responses later on because of context,or language invalidity. For instance:

[0069] The cat is green.

[0070] That big tree is blue.

[0071] In this case, the recognition engine may recognize what the userhas said, but the dialogue manager may reject this as an invalidresponse (although it might be pronounced correctly and semanticallycorrect).

[0072] In particular, FIG. 5 shows response 62 divided into slots 63,64, 65, 68. Each of slots 63, 64, 65, 66 has at least one associatedvalid response. For instance, slot 64 has valid responses 67, 68, 69,70. Slot 65 has valid response 80. Valid responses may have one word(such as, for example, valid response 67 has “grass”), or more than oneword (such as, for example, valid response 68 has “big tree”).Additionally, valid responses may include optional word delimiters 81.Optional word delimiter 81 indicates that the word following optionalword delimiter 81 in the valid response may be present or may be absent.

[0073] The exemplary embodiments and methods of the present inventiondescribed above, as would be understood by a person skilled in the art,are exemplary in nature and do not limit the scope of the presentinvention, including the claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of teaching a user pronunciation,comprising: (a) communicating a model term by a voice portal server tothe user; (b) detecting a response term by the user, the response termbeing provided to the voice portal server; (c) comparing the responseterm to the model term; (d) determining a confidence level by comparingthe response term to the model term; (e) comparing an acceptance limitto the confidence level; and (f) confirming a correct pronunciation ofthe model term if the confidence level is not less than acceptancelimit.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the model term is one ofaudible and written.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:repeating (e) to (f) with another model term substituted for the modelterm.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the pronunciation is of aforeign language.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:informing the user of an incorrect pronunciation of the model word ifthe confidence level is less than the acceptance limit.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising: repeating the model term to the user by thevoice portal server.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing ofthe response term to the model word includes accessing the model termgfrom a database.
 8. A system, comprising: a voice portal arrangement; acommunication arrangement adapted to be coupled with the voice portalarrangement; and an application server adapted to be coupled with thevoice portal arrangement; wherein the voice portal arrangement comparesat least one word spoken by a user into the communication arrangementwith a phrase provided by the application server to determine aconfidence level.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the communicationarrangement is adapted to be wirelessly coupled with the voice portalserver.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the communication arrangementis adapted to be coupled with the voice portal server.
 11. The system ofclaim 8, wherein the communication arrangement is one of a telephone, amobile phone, a wireless communication arrangement and aninternet-enabled arrangement.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein theapplication server at least one of includes a language database andcommunicates with the language database, the language database providingthe phrase.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the application serverstores a user profile, the user profile including at least one of aninstructional history and a proficiency level.
 14. A method of teachinga user a language, comprising: communicating a prompt to the user by avoice portal; detecting a response by the user, the response beingprovided to the voice portal; parsing the response into at least oneuttered phrase, each of the at least one uttered phrase being associatedwith at least one corresponding slot; comparing each of the at least oneuttered phrase with at least one stored phrase, the at least one storedphrase being associated with the at least one corresponding slot;determining a confidence level by comparing each of the at least oneuttered phrase with each of the at least one stored phrase; comparingeach determined confidence level to an associated acceptance limit, theassociated acceptance limit being associated with each of the at leastone stored phrase; and confirming that each of the at least one utteredphrase corresponds to the at least one stored phrase if the confidencelevel is not less than the associated acceptance limit.
 15. The methodof claim 14, further comprising: informing the user by the voice portalserver of an incorrect usage if each determined confidence level is lessthan each associated acceptance limit for any slot.
 16. The method ofclaim 15, further comprising: repeating the prompt to the user by thevoice portal server.
 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:informing the user by the voice portal server of the at least oneuttered phrase associated with the at least one corresponding slot forwhich each determined confidence level is less than each associatedacceptance limit.
 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:determining at least one incorrect uttered phrase for each of the atleast one uttered phrase for which each determined confidence level isless than each associated acceptance limit; comparing the at least oneincorrect uttered phrase with at least one other stored phraseassociated with another slot; determining another confidence level bycomparing the at least one incorrect uttered phrase with the at leastone other stored phrase; comparing the associated acceptance limit tothe other confidence level; and confirming that each incorrect utteredphrase corresponds to the other stored phrase if the other confidencelevel is not less than the associated acceptance limit.
 19. The methodof claim 18, further comprising: informing the user of an incorrectgrammatical usage if any other confidence level is not less than theassociated acceptance limit.
 20. The method of claim 14, furthercomprising: informing the user of a correct usage if any confidencelevel is not less than the associated acceptance limit for all slots.21. The method of claim 14, wherein the comparing of each of the atleast one uttered phrase with the at least one stored phrase includesaccessing the at least one stored phrase from a database.
 22. The methodof claim 14, wherein the parsing of the response into the at least oneuttered phrase is performed using a recognized silence as a separatorbetween two adjacent uttered phrases.
 23. The method of claim 14,wherein the at least one stored phrase includes at least one incorrectlypronounced phrase.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:informing the user of an incorrect pronunciation if the confidence levelis not less than the acceptance limit for the at least one incorrectlypronounced phrase.
 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the informing ofthe user of the incorrect pronunciation includes informing the user ofat least one incorrectly pronounced uttered phrase, the at least oneincorrectly pronounced uttered phrase corresponding to all utteredphrases with corresponding confidence levels that are not less than theassociated acceptance limit for the at least one incorrectly pronouncedphrase.
 26. The method of claim 14, wherein the prompt includes one of ascenario and at least one word.
 27. A computer medium, having a programexecutable on a processor arrangement, to perform a method, the methodcomprising: communicating a prompt to the user by a voice portal;detecting a response by the user, the response being provided to thevoice portal; parsing the response into at least one uttered phrase,each of the at least one uttered phrase being associated with at leastone corresponding slot; comparing each of the at least one utteredphrase with at least one stored phrase, the at least one stored phrasebeing associated with the at least one corresponding slot; determining aconfidence level by comparing each of the at least one uttered phrasewith each of the at least one stored phrase; comparing each determinedconfidence level to an associated acceptance limit, the associatedacceptance limit being associated with each of the at least one storedphrase; and confirming that each of the at least one uttered phrasecorresponds to the at least one stored phrase if the confidence level isnot less than the associated acceptance limit.